\n<\/p>\n
The Cubs were able to cool off baseball\u2019s hottest team Friday.<\/p>\n
Will they be able to stand the heat lurking behind them in their own division?<\/p>\n
The second half started with a win for the North Siders, who halted the visiting Red Sox\u2019 10-game winning streak. After the first two Cubs hitters of the game walked, designated hitter Seiya Suzuki<\/b> smacked his team-leading 26th homer of the season, plenty to power a 4-1 victory.<\/p>\n
But the streakers of greatest concern figure to be the division-rival Brewers, who sat just a game back of the Cubs in the NL Central standings entering play Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Brewers are a good baseball team,\u201d manager Craig Counsell<\/b>, who used to skipper those Brewers, said before Friday\u2019s game. \u201cI\u2019m not sure there\u2019s anything we can do, other than when we play them, to prevent them from winning.\u201d<\/p>\n
If the Cubs had been trying from afar to wish away Brewers wins, it didn\u2019t work. Milwaukee finished the first half with 31 wins in 43 games, closing a one-time 6 1\/2-game deficit to just one game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re a really good team. I don\u2019t think they\u2019re going to go away,\u201d Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer<\/b> said Friday. \u201cThey\u2019ve played really well. Especially over the last 30 games or so, they\u2019ve played excellent baseball.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t expect that race to change. I expect us to play well, I expect them to play well. That\u2019s why the goal, to me, is focusing on [what we can control]. We\u2019ve got eight more games against them, that\u2019s the part we can control.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Brewers are breathing down the Cubs\u2019 necks, threatening to unseat the North Siders from the first-place spot they\u2019ve held since April 4. But could it be considered a good thing that the Cubs \u2013 with their eyes on baseball\u2019s biggest prize, the World Series trophy \u2013 are facing some stiff competition in the middle of July?<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s something to that, a sense of urgency,\u201d Hoyer said. \u201cI don\u2019t think this group lacks for urgency ever. But I do think there is something potentially good about that, you have someone at your heels.\u201d<\/p>\n
RBI guy<\/b><\/p>\n
Suzuki\u2019s three-run homer brought him to 80 RBIs, putting him on pace for 136 by season\u2019s end, which would put him near the top 10 single-season marks in franchise history.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeiya, he\u2019s having a tremendous offensive season,\u201d Counsell said after the game. \u201cPut men on base in front of him, and good things have seemed to happen this year. We\u2019ll keep trying to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Suzuki, who plenty of Cubs fans \u2013 as well as his Cubs teammates \u2013 considered an All-Star snub, revealed that he was invited to participate in the Home Run Derby ahead of the All-Star Game.<\/p>\n
Obviously, he chose not to participate, instead unleashing his home-run swing Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope he approaches the second half for himself as an opportunity to show everybody what could have happened to him [during] the All-Star break,\u201d center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong<\/b> said.<\/p>\n
Injury updates<\/b><\/p>\n
Righty pitcher Javier Assad<\/b> will make his first minor league rehab start next Thursday as he works back from a strained oblique.<\/p>\n
Catcher Miguel Amaya<\/b> will get into game action at a similar time to Assad, perhaps a couple days later, as he works back from his own oblique strain.<\/p>\n
Righty pitcher Jameson Taillon<\/b>, who is out with a strained calf, will begin throwing bullpen sessions shortly, and the team hopes to have him throw off a mound at the end of their next road trip.<\/p>\n
Righty reliever Porter Hodge<\/b> is set to throw a bullpen session Saturday, and if all goes well, the Cubs hope to send him to Triple-A Iowa for a rehab assignment when they begin their next road trip.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n